Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron-Cohen go head to head, and occasionally lip to lip
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Thursday, 14, Sep 2006 05:18
Directed by Adam McKay, out September 15th in cinemas, starring Will Ferrell, John C Reilly and Sacha Baron-Cohen, 108 minutes .
In a nutshell.
Fast. Furious. Farcical. Feel-good. Frenchmen.
What's it all about?
Ricky Bobby (Ferrell) has always wanted to go fast - a fact not surprising considering he was born in the back of speeding car driven by his thrillseeking dad (Gary Cole) who refused to stop to drop his soon-to-be-a-mum wife of a hospital because he was enjoying himself so much. And Ricky gets his big chance when the driver of a no-hope Nascar team he works in the pit team for decides to go off for a chicken sandwich instead of finishing a race (yep, it's that sort of film). Lo and behold, Ricky is a natural, he sets the motorsport world alight, gets a bimbo girlfriend (Leslie Bibb) and gets his best mate Cal (Reilly) in on the act too.
This film has lots of fast cars, lots of jokes, Sacha Baron-Cohen as a gay French F1 driver. And some more fast cars.
Who's in it?
Will Ferrell does what you expect Will Ferrell to do. He plays the all-American anti-hero who jokes his way to the top and makes the sometimes crude, absurd gags that you either love him or hate him for. Thankfully he pulls off the lead role rather well and buries the ghost of the ill-fated 2005 flop Bewitched firmly behind him. Gary Cole is perfect as the "mangy, transient grandfather" (in the words of one of his grandsons) and Reilly plays his undervalued sidekick role exactly as it should be played. But it is Baron-Cohen who steals the show as Jean Girard, the F1 star who is brought over from France to beat Bobby. He comes across delightfully as somewhere between Borat, his Kazakhstan TV character, and Dr Evil of Austin Powers fame. His pseudo-French accent is so bad it's good and Borat's latent homosexuality explodes on to the screen in ludicrous fashion.
As an example.
Dad to little Ricky's elementary high class during careers day (having not seen his son for the best part of ten years): "It's the fastest who get paid and the fastest who get laid."
Ricky after his racing career hits a blip: "I'm going to become a crack dealer. Not a nasty one but a nice one who just goes up to some guys and says, 'Hey, want some crack?'"
Likelihood of a trip to the Oscars
Films like this never do well at the awards and for good reason. They fill a hole but don't push the boundaries. There's nothing that will set the critics' pulses racing but more than enough for the fan of the harmless comedy to get excited about.
What the others say
"Ferrell turns in a brilliant performance as a comic actor, making this character convincing even in his most insane moments. As a result, the biggest laughs occur off the track as Ricky tracks down his hobo drifter dad." - Channel 4
"Funny. Funnier. And more fun. And then the fun skids to a stop. You know how it goes: Plot gets in the way. Somebody decides it's time to get all warm and fuzzy. But until then, Talladega Nights is a chance for Will Ferrell to let it rip." - Rolling Stone
So is it any good?
The reuniting of Ferrell and McKay as co-writers after their previous collaboration resulted in the rather limp Anchorman (2004) could well have ended in tears and indeed there are moments when Ferrell's jokes just don't come off. But on the whole, Talladega Nights is actually rather good. It's a laugh-out-loud unashamed take on Days of Thunder that leaves no stone unturned when it comes to ripping into the world of US motorsport. Baron-Cohen is a superb foil for Ferrell and Reilly's "we're Americans" stance and the man famous for his cutting satire in Ali G is more than willing to be the butt of the anti-French, anti-gay sentiment throughout the film.
As a piece of harmless comedy it works. But as the film tries to take a more serious turn things go a little downhill. Ferrell is what he is, and the idea of him as the man who holds up the moral of the story for all to see just doesn't work. There's no need for the end-of-film coming together of his disjointed - and frankly messed-up - family in a show of gooey, diner-going, schmalz. We prefer Ricky Bobby's two sons when they are nasty and "fired up on Mountain Dew" than after they have been fundamentally altered by their grandmother's tai chi and tough love. We want Bobby to stay an egotistical driver who "is either first or last" and feel ourselves lurch when, at the end, he tells us profoundly: "You've got to win to get love. That's just the way life is."
As a Wednesday night DVD with a few drinks and the right mentality Talladega Nights really hits the spot. But it is not, and should not pretend to be, anything more than that. Ferrell has arguably delivered his most assured lead role yet, although he is still somewhat cast in Baron-Cohen's shadow, and there are enough amusing cracks and farcical scenes to make this stand above the average in this cluttered comedy genre. Just.
6.5/10
Martin Ashplant